A STUDY OF PRE-SEQUENCES IN INVITATION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

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1 - 1 - MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF DANANG The study has been completed at College of Foreign Languages, University of Danang NGÔ THỊ BÍCH HÀ Supervisor: TRAN QUANG HAI, Ph.D. A STUDY OF PRE-SEQUENCES IN INVITATION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE Examiner 1: Assoc. Prof. Dr. TRAN VAN PHUOC Examiner 2: Assoc. Prof. Dr. LUU QUY KHUONG Field: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Code: M.A. THESIS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (A SUMMARY) The thesis was defended at the Examination Council for the M.A. theses, University of Danang. Time: 22/10/2010 Venue: University of Danang Supervisor: TRAN QUANG HAI, Ph.D. DANANG 2010 The original of this thesis is accessible for the purpose of reference at: - Library of the College of Foreign Languages, University of Danang. - The Information Resources Center, University of Danang.

2 1.1. RATIONALE CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Communication is the prerequisite to maintain social relationships, language is the most effective and practical means of communication. People use language to exchange information or convey their ideas or feelings such as ordering, promising, complaining etc and invitation is indispensable. To have successful conversations, each interlocutor has to perform some conversational principles such as the cooperative and the politeness principles. Among them, politeness plays an important role in making utterances in communicative process. Evenly, it also contribute in helping speakers decide whether or not to produce the first pair part of the base sequence in order to avoid failure in communication. When using invitations, most speakers especially Vietnamese may often use pre-sequence as a polite strategy as well as a safe strategy. We can take this example as a proof: A: Are you busy right now? (pre-sequences) B: No, why? A: I m baking a cake now. Won t you come over? [54, p116] In this conversation, the speakers use pre-sequence to survey if their invitation can be accepted. If they receive a good sign from the hearers, they will continue to give the official invitation. In the case of receiving a bad sign, they can save their invitation. Therefore, both the speakers and the hearers will not feel unpleasant, they still maintain the good relationship. Moreover, each language contains its specific cultural features of each country. People from different cultures are studying languages of other cultures, even it is absolutely different from their cultures. In many cases, non- native speakers and native speakers fail to understand each other that cause unpleasant, offensive problems although they have good wills. There are variety of ways that the speakers express the invitation. They are determined by culturalbased. The illocution force behind a particular invitation might differ completely from one culture to another. The learners invite their teachers to join a party and they say: Vietnamese: Sir, today, on the occasion of the Vietnamese Teachers Day, we have prepared a small party. We would like to invite you to our dinner. British: Could you please to come to our dinner for the celebration of the Vietnamese Teachers Day?[15, p47] We can see that Vietnamese use Pre-sequence to give a reason before they give an official invitation. It can be also seen as a polite strategy because it can express their respect to their teacher while the British do not use pre-sequence in their invitation. From the above example, it reveals that there is a different cultural thought patterns.

3 - 5 - Therefore, it inevitably happens cross culture when we communicate and in some cases the invitation fails. For these above reasons, I would like to choose A study of presequences in invitation in English and Vietnamese as the topic of my M.A in the hope of making some contribution to the development of learners skills as well as the process of teaching and learning English when we have to deal with pre-sequences in invitation AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Aims of the Study This study is carried out with the aim at helping the Vietnamese learners of English acquire knowledge of pre-sequences in invitation and use them more effective in appropriate situations. Moreover, the finding of the study will help the learner to use of pre-sequences in invitation effectively in communication Objectives of the Study In order to have a good insight into Pre-sequences in invitations, syntactic and functional features of Pre-sequences in invitation are analyzed carefully. - point out the most typical structures of Pre-sequences in invitations used in English and Vietnamese. - Analyze the functions of Pre-sequences of invitations in terms of strategy involving politeness Contrast the syntactic and functional features of this speech act in English and Vietnamese to find out the similarities and differences between the two languages. - Suggest some implications of the findings for the teaching and learning of English and Vietnamese as foreign languages RESEARCH QUESTIONS The study will clarify the following questions: 1. What are the typical structures of Pre invitation sequences in English and Vietnamese? 2. What are the functional features of Pre-invitation sequences in English and Vietnamese? 3. What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in the syntactic and functional features of Preinvitation sequences? 1.4. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The author hope that the study will be able to provide useful knowledge to enable better use of PIs in cross cultural communication in English and Vietnamese. The findings of the study can be the potential source for the teaching and learning PIs in English and Vietnamese in particular as foreign languages THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY This research is carried out by analysis the syntactic and functional features of pre-sequences in invitation in English and

4 - 7 - Vietnamese. The analysis of the data collected from textbooks, short stories, novels and films. Within the scope of the study, response of invitation as well as non-verbal aspects such as facial expressions, tones and body language are not included ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY The study is organized into five chapters: Chapter 1 is Introduction; Chapter 2 is Literature Review and Theoretical Background; Chapter 3 is Methodology and Procedure; Chapter 4 is Findings and Discussions; Chapter 5 is Conclusions CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1. LITERATURE REVIEW Speech acts have been researched by many linguists, among of them are Yule and Cutting with many precious theories of this field. Cutting in Pragmatics and Discourse [28, p31-p39] discusses and points out the purposes of using pre-sequences. He states that Presequences prepare the ground for a further sequence and signal the type of utterance to follow and they also be used with a negativeface-saving function Yule [50] in Pragmatics discusses in detail pre-sequences as pre-invitations, pre-requests, and pre-announcements. He states that the concept of face saving may be helpful in understanding how participants in an interaction inevitably understand more than is said and the using pre-sequences considering as the perspective of politeness. In Vietnamese, Pre-invitation sequences were cursorily stated in the books Ngữ Dụng học (1998) by Nguyen Duc Dan. The author also mentions pre-sequences and considers them as conversational openings. He points out the functions of using pre-sequences such as surveying or making a favorable atmosphere before starting the conversation. Besides, there are some dissertations of Vietnamese learners about invitation and pre-invitation sequences and some related issues to our study which can be listed as Lưu Quý Khương [8,9] Trương Thị Ánh Tuyết [46], Nguyễn Quang [15] THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Syntactic features Speech act theory Conversational theory Politeness theory Pre-sequences, Invitation and Pre-invitation Pre-sequences According to Schegloff (1990)[43, p156] one job presequences are designed to do is to explore the likelihood that utterance being prefaced, and the action(s) it will do, will not be responded to in a disprefered way- will not for example be rejected.

5 - 9 - In other words, pre-sequences are used to help participants avoid embarrassing disprefered responses Definition of invitation The Oxford dictionary of English [45, p.961] defines invite (verb) as to make a polite, formal, or friendly request to someone to go somewhere or to do something Pre-sequences in invitation According to Yule [50, p133] A Pre-invitation is an utterance before an invitation to check if an invitation can be made Nguyễn Thiện Giáp [7, p87], Pre-sequences are called những lời ướm trước. He states that Mở ñầu cuộc thoại thường có chức năng gây chú ý ñể ñối phương cảm thấy sẽ có một hoặc một chuỗi lời tiếp theo; những câu có tính chất thăm dò ñối phương về chủ thể, về quan hệ, về cách thức giao tiếp. Như vậy, những lời chào, những lời hô gọi, những lời thưa gửi, làm quen là những lời mở ñầu. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE 3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN The research is studied according to qualitative approach that is the combination between descriptive and contrastive methods to describe and analyze the syntactic and functional features of preinvitation sequences in English and Vietnamese. The quantitative approach is also used in order to summarize the frequency of structures used for pre-invitation sequences DATA COLLECTION The data used in the study were picked out from about 528 conversations from short stories, novels, books, films in both English and Vietnamese DATA ANALYSIS The samples collected were described qualitatively in terms of syntactic and functional features according to modern linguistic points of view in English and Vietnamese. The frequency of structures used for pre-invitation sequences was totalized basing on the quantitative method. The syntactic and functional features of pre-invitation sequences were then summarized in some tables. The contrastive method was applied to analyze the similarities and differences in the syntactic and functional features of preinvitation sequences in the two languages. Some generalizations and implications were drawn out after the data analysis PROCEDURES Firstly, pre-invitation sequences in conversations were collected; secondly, the samples were categorized into groups on the basis of the syntactic features; thirdly, we analyzed the syntactic and functional features of pre-invitation sequences in both languages; fourthly, the similarities and differences of pre-invitation sequences in English and Vietnamese were identified and then summarized; fifthly, some implications for teaching and learning of pre-invitation

6 sequences for the Vietnamese learners of English as well as some other issues for further research were suggested after the conclusion was briefly reviewed VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1. THE SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF PRE-INVITATION SEQUENCES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE The syntactic representation of pre-invitation sequences in English Pre-invitation sequence as a word Pre-invitation sequences as a sentence: Declaratives, Interrogatives, Imperatives, Exclamatives. - Declarative structure (positive declarative) - Interrogative statements: containing subtypes such as Yes/ No questions, Information questions, Declarative questions and Tag questions. Yes/ No question: including subtypes: Complete questions, Incomplete questions Information questions (17) M: What s your plan today? An: I can t decide what to do M: How about visiting the Great Wall with me?[55, p99] Declarative Questions (20) Blade: You getting tired? Jean: Uh, he s got so much energy he wears me out sometimes. Blade: Could I take you out to lunch? [102] Tag questions: Its significance of a question comes from the tag, which has the construction of an auxiliary a predicator followed by a personal pronouns as the subject. (19) Sylvia: You like salad, don t you? The man: Yes Sylvia: I ll make a nice salad. Come! [61, p193] - Imperative: beginning with a verb or verb phrase and exist in both affirmative and negative forms Pre-invitation sequences one more sentence The syntactic representation of pre-invitation sequences in Vietnamese Pre-invitation sequence as a phrase Pre-invitation sequences as a sentence: Declaratives, Interrogatives, Imperatives, Exclamatives. - Declaratives: two forms : affirmative and negative statements. Negative statements in Vietnamese are typically formed with words which have negative meanings such as chả, chẳng.

7 (34) Người nhà quê: Chả mấy khi gặp người tử tế như ông, nếu ông không cho tôi ñược cảm ơn, thì tôi ân hận mãi. Nào, mời ông, xin ông ñừng từ chối, phụ lòng tôi. [70, p499] - Interrogative statements: containing subtypes such as Yes/ No questions, Information questions, Declarative questions and Tag questions and Alternative questions. Yes/ No question: including subtypes: Complete questions, Incomplete questions. Their structures contain auxiliary verbs namely be, have, do/does before the subject of the sentence. Information questions: the form of statement with indefinite words in their proper positions where the required information goes in declarative sentences: Cái gì, ở ñâu, nơi nào, khi nào, lúc nào, ai, tại sao, cái nào, thứ nào, như thế nào, ra sao, sao, bao lâu, bao xa, mấy giờ.they are also added some final particles such as nhỉ, chứ, thế, vậy (41) Hạnh: Bây giờ bạn ñịnh ñi ñâu? Văn Châu: Đi về Hạnh: Hay là bạn ghé qua nhà Hạnh chơi chốc nữa hẳn về. [63, p688] Declarative Questions: appearing in the affirmative form without final particles Tag questions: In tag question, normally, we can find out the phrases phải không, có phải không, ñược không, ñúng không in the position of the end in the sentences. Alternative questions: containing two polar questions combined by coordinator hay, hay là - Exclamatives: The final particles are found out in the sentences nhỉ, thay, lắm, thế or interjections ôi!, ồ!, trời!, quý hóa quá! ủa and some adverbs such as ghê, quá, biết bao.. - Imperatives: The prototypical imperatives have no subject or a finite PIs more than one sentence Similarities and differences of syntactic representation of pre-invitation sequences in English and Vietnamese Similarities Differences 4.2. THE FUNCTIONAL FEATURES OF PRE-INVITATION SEQUENCES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE The functional representation of pre-invitation sequences in English Surveying: Pre-invitation sequences with surveying function are seen as an expression of the speaker s intention. Through it, he/she can search the hearer s plans, intentions, attitude, hope

8 Notifying (74) A: I m going to an art exhibition this Saturday. B: Sound great. A: Would you like to go with me? [52, p472] Reasoning Confirming (78) A: Are you done with that article yet? B: Just finished. Why? A: Well, wanna take a break and go for a ride? [122] Persuading Advertising Introducing: The speaker introduces themselves to the listener before making an invitation so that the hearer knows who he/she is. In addition to, identifying the speaker makes the belief to the hearer Showing the honor to the listener: (86) Playist: It d really mean a lot to us if you come over a little early and we got to go to over some leads Blade: Um Playist: Please join with the band [102] Explaining Suggesting Drawing the hearer s attention: This function of preinvitation sequences can be found in the situations which the speakers call the hearer s name or giving a sign of starting a conversation so that the hearer concentrates what they are going to talk next Giving one s idea (commenting Advising: The function advising in the Pre-invitation sequence helps the listeners to realize what they should to do Showing one s desire Reminding a good experience (95) Salli: Do you remember when we went to Robert Frost s cabin? The man: Yes, I do and surely I did. Salii: Well, when you come back from Missouri, I d like us togo to Robert Frost s cabin again. [62, p79] Warning Showing a good will to the hearer The functional features of pre-invitation sequences in Vietnamese Surveying (99) Kinh: Biết hút thuốc lá không nào? Khuê: Có ạ Kinh: Đây, ông hút thuốc lá, mình hút thuốc lào.[69, p297]

9 Notifying: The speakers want the listeners to get information or news so that the hearers can understand or guess what the speakers want to say later Reasoning Confirming (111) Bà cụ: Nói thế chứ những thứ này cậu Phán ăn sao ñược? Cậu có ăn thì lại vào cao lâu. Cậu Phán: Cao lâu cũng không ngon bằng hàng của cụ. Bà cụ: Vậy cậu mua ñi cho tôi vài hào. [66, p271] Advertising (115) Nga: Đậu phụ vẫn còn nóng, trắng mịn chẳng khác gì hàng ñậu ngon ở nhà ñâu anh ạ. Anh lấy mấy bìa mở hàng, em ñể rẻ cho. [88, p314] Persuading Giving one s ideas (commenting (121) A: Ở Hà Nội mà không biết bún mọc thì tẩm lắm, Phượng ạ. Phượng: Nhưng mà A: Nhưng mà cái gì! Tôi khao! [83, p171] Warning (128) Lão Sếnh: Ông sợ mất chức phó chủ tịch nên không dám hút? Nhưng thế không hợp mệnh trời ñâu, ông Giàng Súng ạ Giàng Súng: Làm gì có. Lão Sếnh: Thế thì mời cụ phó chủ tịch ạ. Bỏ thuốc phiện thì con mèo, con gián, con mối nhà tôi nó cũng phản ñối ñấy. [82, p513] Showing the honor to the listener (133) Bẩm các cụ, chả mấy khi các cụ có lòng chiếu cố ñến chơi nhà chúng cháu. Gọi là có chén rượu nhạt, xin rước các cụ cứ thật thà ñi cho. [66, p133] Showing the good will to the hearer Explaining Advising (140) Việt: Tuyết rơi dày như thế này có lẻ chị và cháu không về ñược ñâu. Cháu Nam lại dang sốt, nhất ñịnh ra ngoài sẽ rất nguy hiểm. Hai mẹ con nên nghĩ lại ñây. Đừng ngại. [88, p323] Reminding a good experience Suggesting Introducing (144) Kiều Vân: Chào cô Xuân, cho phép tôi ñược giới thiệu Tôi là Kiều Vân phụ trách tài chính ở ñây. Cô Xuân: Chào cô Kiều Vân. Kiều Vân: Trưa nay chị có rảnh không vậy? Tôi mời chị ñi ăn trưa ñể chúng ta làm quen. [107]

10 Showing one s desire Drawing the hearer s attention Similarities and differences of functional representation of Pre-invitation sequence in English and Vietnamese Table 4.9: Summary of relative frequency ( % ) of functional representation of Pre-invitation sequences in English and Vietnamese Types of function English language Vietnamese language Number Frequency (%) Number Frequency (%) 1. Surveying Notifying Reasoning Confirming Persuading Advertising Introducing Showing the honor to the listener Explaining Suggesting Drawing the hearer s attention 12. Giving one s idea Advising Reminding a good experience 15. Showing one s desire Warning Showing a good will to the hearer Total Similarities Differences CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS 5.1. CONCLUSIONS With the result of data analysis and the comparison of similarities and differences in Pre-invitation sequence in both languages English and Vietnamese, I would like to make some final remarks and implications in reference to their syntax and function. 1. Syntactically At first, Pre-invitation sequences in both languages can appear in many structures. For instance, a word, a sentence and more than one sentence. In addition, PIs as a sentence have many forms such as Declaratives, Interrogatives, Imperatives, Exclamatives. It means that PIs are popularly used in English and Vietnamese Furthermore, mood relates the proposition to its context in speech event. Each mood type is basically associated with an

11 illocutionary act. Linguistically, specific functions of PIs are realized in the selecting mood, voice, modal element and certain expression in English. In Vietnamese, function words or expressions and their arrangement in the sentence are essential means. In addition, we can recognize that all structures in both languages contain modifying acts as pre-modifying (greeting or vocative) or post- modifying (vocative) Finally, Pre-invitation sequences not only have one sentence but also many sentences or they take many turns. The speakers can use many structures to express their intentions. Depend on different situations, hearers, aims they intend, they might use different ways to impact the listeners so that the listeners know ambiguously or clearly what the speakers want. Using PIs more than one sentence helps the invitation to be more powerful and effective. Although Pre-invitation sequences in both languages share a lot of similar features, we can still find a significant number of differences. The results reveal that mood in English is grammatically formed by the order of the subject and the finite. But in Vietnamese mood are lexically recognized by typical markers, particularly by typical words or modal particles. Moreover, Interrogative mood in English is usually formed with the inversion of the finite operator or modal finite and the subject of the sentence. In contrast, information questions in Vietnamese typically have the form of a declarative with indefinite words and positions in the questions. English exploits mood, word forms and intonation for distinction of clause types. In Vietnamese, the use of particles, functional words and word combination take the role. Finally, the British tend to prefer to use imperative structures than the Vietnamese. Probably, the directness seems to be more favored in this culture. Whereas, the Vietnamese use the exclamative structures more frequently than the English since this structure is quite expressive and it therefore can help them to show their feeling and attitude precisely. 2. Functionally, Pre-invitation sequences have many different functions in English and Vietnamese such as Surveying, Notifying, Reasoning, Confirming, Persuading, Advertising, Introducing, Showing the attitude/ the honor to the listener, Explaining, Drawing the hearer s attention, Reminding a good experience, Showing one s desire, Giving one s ideas, Warning, Introducing one s self, Suggesting. It means that using PIs is necessary in communication. PIs in English and Vietnamese can have a variety of functions such as Surveying, Notifying, Reasoning, Confirming, Persuading, Advertising, Introducing, Showing the attitude/ the honor to the listener, Explaining, Drawing the hearer s attention, Reminding a good experience, Showing one s desire. It means that PIs are popularly used in English and Vietnamese.

12 Furthermore, forms of the structures of different functions are realized to be analogous in two languages. For examples, Interrogatives for surveying function and confirming, declaratives for notifying, reasoning and advertising, reminding a good experience in Interrogatives. Both Vietnamese and British people, searching information from the hearers such as their plan, their intention, their interest is the most popular way to make PIs. It makes both the speaker and hearer feel free or comfortable in inviting as well as reacting to the invitation. Therefore, it can minimize the addressee s face threats. Besides some similarities in functional representation of Preinvitation sequence in English and Vietnamese, we also find out differences in functional representation of PIs. Firstly, we can see that there are a few functions of preinvitation sequences which can appear more frequently in English than in Vietnamese and other wise. For instance, PIs with Introducing one s self function in English appear more than those in Vietnamese. English people have a habit of introducing themselves to others or they are willing to invite the strange one to do something at the first time after introducing themselves or starting a conversation with some savoir vivre. On the contrary, Vietnamese people seem to be more cautious. It can be said that Vietnamese belongs to Asian culture, where sentiment and affection are important. The relationships among persons to persons are highly expected. Showing the caring to others warms all relationships and makes favorable air in communication. Therefore, PIs with the above functions such as giving one s idea, warning, showing a good will, advising and reminding is a good way to show the speaker s affection to the hearer. So that, Hs feel the honesty from Ss. It makes the inviting act is more powerful and effective. We can realize Vietnamese people like to use PIs with many different functions and are distributed quite equally. While English people might use popular PIs like surveying, confirming, notifying and reasoning. This is further proof of what has been claimed as the value of face in the two languages. Vietnamese people tend to be more careful about the way they use PIs. Vietnamese people consider invitation as a privilege. Accepting invitation without thinking is considered as greedy person. So they might refuse the invitation at the first time, and the speakers invite one more time or use the variety of structures as well as functions of PIs to show their good will to the listeners IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH Implication for the learners In order to succeed in making an invitation, learners should use appropriate structures as well as functions. Learners should know the purpose of using Pre-invitation sequences, from that they can choose the most appropriate structures or functions to get their aims effectively. Moreover, learners should realize the differences in using

13 PIs in both languages English and Vietnamese. So that they can minimize the risk of cultural sock when they give an invitation. Learners should study to speak not only grammatically, but also appropriately to achieve communicative goals Implication for the teachers Teachers should introduce some similarities and differences in giving an inviting act in both languages in English and Vietnamese. So that learners know necessity of using PIs and know how to use properly. The most important is that teachers should remind learners when giving PIs, learners should orient to the using of the target language. They should not translate words by words from Vietnamese in English. Teachers should have many class activities relating making an invitation and they need to create a teaching environment with real life situations so that learners can practice using Pre-invitation as much as possible. For each purpose of invitation, teachers encourage learners to speak what they think. After that, they give some feedbacks for using appropriate structures and functions in order to communicate effectively LIMITATIONS The research has been carried out with our great effort. However, it certainly cannot avoid some weakness due to the researcher s limitation of time, knowledge, materials and other objective factors The corpus was built with limited samples of Pre-invitation in English and Vietnamese from textbooks, novels, short stories, films. We could not conduct a fieldwork to collect authentic samples of PIs used in everyday conversations. The study has just addressed the issues of Pre-invitation sequences in syntactic and functional features in English and Vietnamese. Other elements such as voice, intonation, tone playing important role in producing PIs have not been considered yet. Finally, using pre-invitation sequences in both languages is effected by social factors such as age, social positions, power, sex, profession, education, income but they are not mentioned in this study SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH This study has been an attempt at analyzing the syntactic and functional features of PIs in English and Vietnamese with the main purpose to find out the similarities and differences in using PIs between the two languages. However, within the limitation of a M.A thesis, a full description of this speech act cannot be done. In order to gain better results and provide much valuable knowledge about Preinvitation sequence in English and Vietnamese for the learners of English. The following are suggested for further study: - Pragmatic and cultural aspects of pre-invitation sequences in English and Vietnamese. - Pre-invitation sequences in non- verbal communication.